1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of engine stands, and more particularly to a novel stand having powered means for controllably locating an engine mounted on a rotatable engine support and which further includes a wheeled frame for moving the stand from one position to another.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the past, it has been the conventional practice to mount engines on a non-powered engine stand so that the engine is cantilevered outwardly from a support. In this location, a mechanic can reach many areas of the engine which would normally be unavailable without the support in mounting of the engine on a stand. However, problems and difficulties have been encountered with conventional non-powered engine stands which stem largely from the fact that a workman must twist his body into various contortions in order to maneuver heavy engines in an effort to perform maintenance and repair procedures. In some instances, the entire engine must be removed from the stand and then reoriented for remounting onto the stand. Such procedures require substantial work effort and require a longer period of time in order to perform the repair or maintenance procedures. Even when powered stands or platforms have been employed, there has been a lack of speed control wherein the mounted engine is moved too rapidly to attain accuracy of work position. Also, most powered conventional stands are limited to short block assemblies since there is not enough drive reduction to attain the purposes desired by the mechanic. Additionally, conventional engine stands are very large in size and are difficult to move from place to place.
Prior attempts to provide suitable engine stands are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,562,271; 5,238,126; 5,381,575 and 4,809,963. All of these prior references suffer from the above noted problems.
Therefore, a long-standing need has existed to provide a novel powered engine stand which has the ability to rotate a mounted engine and to position complete engine assemblies easily.